It's time to admit a painful truth.

[kentuck]

We have lost the right to peacefully assemble and protest in this country. If they cannot get you to peacefully assemble behind a steel fence at the place of their choosing, they have no choice but to beat in your head if you insist on protesting in front of the all-powerful leader.When was the last time you saw a protest without police or miliary intervention in this country? It is gone.

[el_gato]

anybody who still thinks we are living in a free country

is hiding their head in the sand

[SlavesandBulldozers]

1. you can still peacefully assemble

at a $2000 a plate luncheon, and there is none of that awful commotion from the commoners.

[IronLionZion]

2. What can we do about it?

THey call us traitors and say we should not protest because if our government really was oppressive, we would be oppressed. But in many weys we are being oppressed, like the serious limits on civil liberties and first amendment rights.

[JanMichael]

3. What's sad is that it's a classic "Slippery Slope".

The more they clamp down the more apoplectic the protestors will become leading to a stronger crackdown leading to angrier protestors etfreakingcetera.

[lovedems]

4. That's the irony of this whole "liberation of Iraq"

The only thing this administration knows how to do is oppress so why are they "liberating"? They don't know the first thing about liberation or freedom! That is probably why things suck so bad over in Iraq! The main concern of the WH while preparing to send the Chimp over to rub elbows with the Queen was to keep the protesters out of sight and hearing distance from the dumb one. That is a priority people! Let's spend millions of dollars of tax payers money, allow the CIA to shoot protesters (if necessary) and let them have immunity and then shout terror threat, just so the dumb one doesn't have to see or hear those who despise him! There isn't any freedom, we have a dictator who got rid of a dictator in the name of "good vs. evil".

[mikehiggins]

5. Oh Boy! Another opportunity to post this!

In light of what this thread is discussing, this seems appropos, if a little OT...forgive me

----------------

Holding demonstrations in NYC during the GOP convention is as stupid and self destructive an idea as anyone could ever come up with.

Stay home.

If you want to protest the GOP convention, do something at home. Hold
memorial services for the men and women who have died in Bush's War. Visit a VA hospital, organize a blood drive, do voter registration, hold a concert or ten, but under no circumstances be stupid enough to put yourself in harm's way and in the video cameras of the media and Rove. You will be doing the GOP's work for them. How dumb is that?

There will be little more than two months between the GOP convention and the election, and the images from that event will be all over the press, all over the world, and in every US television set that can pull in a signal.

What do you think the message will be?

Is it possible that anyone could be blind enough to ignore what has gone on with the media in this country over the last decade? Does anyone really think any newsreader is going to go out in the street to learn the truth and take a chance on getting hit? Does anyone really think any media type is going to try and raise a ruckus on the Convention floor? What is wrong with you people? Is it conviction or ego?

And what kind of moron looks forward to something like what happened in Chicago? Some protest leaders are bragging that people are going to die; that there'll be blood in the street. If someone looks forward to that, just how can they claim to be any different from the Bush League?

Does anyone think the world doesn't know there are lots of people who don't like King George? Watch BBC news if you have any doubts. So what are exactly you going to prove by confronting the NYPD and the Secret Service except your ability to get hit?

Spokespeople on the left are doing what the old style generals always do, fighting the last war.

2004 is not the 60's and 70's. This administration already knows a huge number of americans are in opposition to them and their putsch. They don't care. All that will happen that week in September will be spun as proof that only terrorists and protestors are against Bush.

Pictures of protestors "desecrating" the 911 site will play round the clock across the nation, even if the Bush League has to use its 200 million to pay for the airtime. Mass arrests will follow and lots of those arrested will be charged with terrorism under the Patriot Act. Others around the US will be dealt with the same way and no one can count on some brave newsperson standing up for the victims.

You must know this is likely.

Avoid NYC like the plague next September. If there was someone or some group out there with the resources to do it, concerts could be set up to take place that whole period, stealing some of the attention from the GOP convention and focusing it on what would be much better for all concerned.

My vision is of empty streets, lined with GOP agitators without crowds of dupes surrounding them, facing rows of bored NYPD cops standing around drinking coffee and eating donuts.

On overtime.

Stay home and do something constructive where it will make a difference, where the people who are going to vote are.

[redqueen]

6. Great idea! n/t

[kentuck]

8. I think we need to protest in new and innovative ways....

For example , if we had 120,000 people protesting in NY, rather than have them all protesting together, so they could be ignored or exploited by the GOp and the media, have them divide up into cells of about a dozen people each. This would be 10,000 individual cells! They would not get within a half/block of each other but would scatter over a larger area. It would make it almost impossible for the police to monitor or arrest everyone. It would confuse the hell out of them.

Since they are intent on taking away our right to assemble, perhaps we need to outsmart them and show them that we will assemble any time we take the damn notion.

[bearfartinthewoods]

9. i thought the RNC wanted to move the whole thing off shore?

was the bit about a cruise ship just a hoax?

[chookie]

7. Agreed

I would go further -- to say that Democracy is dead in America.

When His Chimperial Highness pays lip service to how lucky we should feel because we live in "freedom" because we'd be shot anywhere else for our mischievous misguided dissent to his infallibility, I think on a gut level what he *really* feels is that Saddam Hussein was lucky in that he was able to openly kill anyone who opposed him.